# phpman > perldoc > File::Remove ## NAME [File::Remove](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/File%3A%3ARemove/markdown) - Remove files and directories ## VERSION version 1.60 ## SYNOPSIS use [File::Remove](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/File%3A%3ARemove/markdown) 'remove'; # removes (without recursion) several files remove( '*.c', '*.pl' ); # removes (with recursion) several directories remove( \1, qw{directory1 directory2} ); # removes (with recursion) several files and directories remove( \1, qw{file1 file2 directory1 *~} ); # removes without globbing: remove( \1, {glob => 0}, '*'); # trashes (with support for undeleting later) several files trash( '*~' ); ## DESCRIPTION [File::Remove::remove](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/File%3A%3ARemove%3A%3Aremove/markdown) removes files and directories. It acts like /bin/rm, for the most part. Although "unlink" can be given a list of files, it will not remove directories; this module remedies that. It also accepts wildcards, * and ?, as arguments for filenames. [File::Remove::trash](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/File%3A%3ARemove%3A%3Atrash/markdown) accepts the same arguments as remove, with the addition of an optional, infrequently used "other platforms" hashref. ## SUBROUTINES remove Removes files and directories. Directories are removed recursively like in rm -rf if the first argument is a reference to a scalar that evaluates to true. If the first argument is a reference to a scalar, then it is used as the value of the recursive flag. By default it's false so only pass \1 to it. If the next argument is a hash reference then it is a key/values of options. Currently, there is one supported option of "'glob' => 0" which prevents globbing. E.g: remove(\1, {glob => 0}, '*'); Will not remove files globbed by '*' and will only remove the file called asterisk if it exists. In list context it returns a list of files/directories removed, in scalar context it returns the number of files/directories removed. The list/number should match what was passed in if everything went well. rm Just calls remove. It's there for people who get tired of typing remove. clear The "clear" function is a version of "remove" designed for use in test scripts. It takes a list of paths that it will both initially delete during the current test run, and then further flag for deletion at END-time as a convenience for the next test run. trash Removes files and directories, with support for undeleting later. Accepts an optional "other platforms" hashref, passing the remaining arguments to remove. Win32 Requires [Win32::FileOp](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Win32%3A%3AFileOp/markdown). Installation not actually enforced on Win32 yet, since [Win32::FileOp](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Win32%3A%3AFileOp/markdown) has badly failing dependencies at time of writing. OS X Requires [Mac::Glue](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Mac%3A%3AGlue/markdown). Other platforms The first argument to trash() must be a hashref with two keys, 'rmdir' and 'unlink', each referencing a coderef. The coderefs will be called with the filenames that are to be deleted. expand DO NOT USE. Kept for legacy. undelete DO NOT USE. Kept for legacy. ## SUPPORT Bugs should always be submitted via the CPAN bug tracker <> For other issues, contact the maintainer. ## AUTHOR Adam Kennedy <> ## COPYRIGHT Taken over by Shlomi Fish (<>) while disclaiming all rights and placing his modifications under CC0/public-domain/MIT/any-other-licence. Some parts copyright 2006 - 2012 Adam Kennedy. Taken over by Adam Kennedy <> to fix the "deep readonly files" bug, and do some package cleaning. Some parts copyright 2004 - 2005 Richard Soderberg. Taken over by Richard Soderberg <> to port it to [File::Spec](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/File%3A%3ASpec/markdown) and add tests. Original copyright: 1998 by Gabor Egressy, <>. This program is free software; you can redistribute and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. ## SUPPORT ### Websites The following websites have more information about this module, and may be of help to you. As always, in addition to those websites please use your favorite search engine to discover more resources. * MetaCPAN A modern, open-source CPAN search engine, useful to view POD in HTML format. <> * RT: CPAN's Bug Tracker The RT ( Request Tracker ) website is the default bug/issue tracking system for CPAN. <> * CPANTS The CPANTS is a website that analyzes the Kwalitee ( code metrics ) of a distribution. <> * CPAN Testers The CPAN Testers is a network of smoke testers who run automated tests on uploaded CPAN distributions. <> * CPAN Testers Matrix The CPAN Testers Matrix is a website that provides a visual overview of the test results for a distribution on various Perls/platforms. <> * CPAN Testers Dependencies The CPAN Testers Dependencies is a website that shows a chart of the test results of all dependencies for a distribution. <> Bugs / Feature Requests Please report any bugs or feature requests by email to "bug-file-remove at rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at <>. You will be automatically notified of any progress on the request by the system. ### Source Code The code is open to the world, and available for you to hack on. Please feel free to browse it and play with it, or whatever. If you want to contribute patches, please send me a diff or prod me to pull from your repository :) <> git clone git://github.com/shlomif/File-Remove.git ## AUTHOR Shlomi Fish <> ## BUGS Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website <> or by email to >. When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature. ## COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE This software is copyright (c) 1998 by Gabor Egressy. This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.